Mansion

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's Southern California mansion is slated for a substantial upgrade. The GOP presidential hopeful has owned an oceanfront home worth $12 million in La Jolla - on the northern edge of San Diego - since 2008. The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that Romney has filed an application to bulldoze the existing one-story, 3,009-square-foot home and replace it with a two-story, 11,062-square-foot structure. A Romney campaign official said the reason for nearly quadrupling the size of the home was to make room for the couple's five married sons and 16 grandchildren.

Nowadays, it's the price tag that makes a house famous. The most expensive U.S. home ever sold, a single-family Connecticut house bought by a company, recently went for $120 million. It used to be the owners who made the house famous. Which made Beverly Hills' Pickfair, after the White House, perhaps the most famous house in the country as the home of moviedom's Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. The next owner of Pickfair rose in the pantheon as well: Jerry Buss, who made the L.A. Lakers one of the winningest franchises in NBA history.

Between "Dynasty" and Arnold Schwarzenegger's new movie "Commando," there's murders, machine guns and gore galore at Greenacres, the former Harold Lloyd estate. The 44-room, 48,000-square-foot renaissance villa that straddles the L.A. and Beverly Hills city limits is the site of a bloody massacre in "Commando." Schwarzenegger single-handedly seeks revenge on an exiled Latin American politician. Hundreds die all over the gardens.

"Brick Mansions," Paul Walker's penultimate film (prior to "Fast & Furious 7"), is a dumb and ugly action picture that works strictly as a reminder of the late actor's head-turning good looks and modest charisma. Otherwise, this remake of the 2004 French thriller "District B13," directed by Camille Delamarre (editor of "Transporter 3" and "Taken 2"), is a dizzying mishmash of showy stunts, muddled narrative and some seriously risible acting and dialogue. Prolific filmmaker Luc Besson's screenplay, faithfully adapted from the "B13" script he wrote with Bibi Naceri, has relocated this dystopian crime tale from 2006 Paris to 2018 Detroit (as if the Motor City didn't have enough image problems)

Actors Jeremy Renner and Kristoffer Winters have sold their latest house remodel in Holmby Hills for $24 million. The buyer of the Roaring '20s Art Deco-style mansion, which was listed at $24.95 million, is British luxury property developer Nick Candy. The Reserve, which has a wine cellar, a theater, five fireplaces, six bedrooms, 11 bathrooms and 10,005 square feet of living space, was sold furnished and toothbrush ready. Among items included were a stocked bar and linens. The two-acre property features gates, a cobblestone driveway and a swimming pool with spa. Renner and Winters have been buying and redoing residential properties for more than a decade.

Actor Bruce Willis has listed his Beverly Hills mansion at $22 million. The walled and gated estate includes a 1928 Spanish-style house and a tennis court on an acre of landscaped grounds. There is a screening room, an inner courtyard, 11 bedrooms, 11 bathrooms and 10,379 square feet of living space. PHOTOS: Grandest pool around? Malibu has it Willis, 58, is known for the “Die Hard” film series. His scores of credits include starring roles in “Pulp Fiction” (1994)

Some University of California regents on Tuesday said it might make more sense to sell off a university-owned mansion that needs a major overhaul rather than restore the Contra Costa County property. The idea was broached as a r egents committee approved initial repairs of Blake House, the estate where most UC presidents had lived since the 1960s but which has been empty for the last five years. The 13,200-square-foot-residence, located about 11 miles north of the UC system's Oakland headquarters, needs a major overhaul, officials say. Administrators have estimated that a full overhaul of Blake House could cost between $3.5 million and $6 million.

Christina Aguilera has put her 11,500-square-foot gated mansion in Beverly Hills on the market at $13.5 million. Set on nearly two-thirds of an acre, the Mediterranean-style home has a grand foyer with a sweeping staircase, a fanciful children's room, a gym, a game room, a gift-wrapping area, a movie room, a beauty salon, a guesthouse with a recording studio, and a total of six bedrooms and nine bathrooms. The master bedroom suite contains a lounge, a fireplace and dual bathrooms and closets.

Nearing completion after five years of construction in the hills of Bel-Air, Chateau des Fleurs looms like some super-sized Hollywood notion of dynastic France. From the street, the two-story mansion on three acres - where Stone Canyon and Bellagio roads converge south of the Hotel Bel-Air, across from the fourth fairway of the Bel-Air Country Club - is largely obscured by fences, trees and equipment. A better view is available from an ungated lawn on nearby Siena Way, where an observer can peer down on the palatial, U-shaped residence with its Versailles-inspired mansard roof and dormer windows and ponder: Just how much house does a family need?

Cut into a steep hillside, this contemporary home in north Laguna Beach reflects the changes the city made to its municipal code in 2002, commonly known as the "mansionization ordinance," to reduce the appearance of mass from the growing number of stacked homes. Developer Jeff Day and his associates purchased the 1949 home that stretched across two lots, tore it down and subdivided the lots equally. Paul McClean of McClean Design was hired to design both homes. The contemporary combines nautical elements with natural materials.

Joining this spring's bumper crop of L.A.-area mega estates for sale is Liongate, entering the fray priced at $65 million. Other Westside contenders include the $135-million Beverly House, Jamie McCourt's $55-million home and Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen's $50-million moated residence. Although two lion statues still stand at one of the gates, the reworked 1938 mansion in Bel-Air has dropped the plural from its former Lionsgate name. Singer Kenny Rogers, who sold the estate in 1983 for $5.8 million, is credited with placing the lions outside the gate.

Fleur de Lys, the Westside mansion that recently sold for a Southern California record-breaking price of $102 million, is now available for lease for $400,000 a month to long-term tenants. The timing is good for the new, and as yet unidentified, owner. Another mega estate, historic Beverly House in Beverly Hills, reentered the for-sale market at $135 million and also is available to let at $600,000 a month -- making Fleur de Lys look like a relative bargain. Fleur de Lys claims roughly 50,000 square feet of living space on five acres.

The Roman Catholic archbishop of Atlanta demolished a ranch home that had been donated to the church by Joseph Mitchell, whose aunt Margaret Mitchell wrote "Gone With The Wind," and spent $2.2 million of the bequest to build himself a Tudor-style mansion. The project, which began in 2012, sparked outrage among some of the archdiocese's 1 million parishioners when the Atlanta Journal-Constitution last month in a front-page story reported that...

After an international bidding war, a Westside mansion often described as a French palace has changed hands for $102 million, making it the most expensive residential sale ever recorded in Southern California. As is often the case with high-end properties, the identity of the trophy home's unnamed buyer has been obscured behind layers of lawyers, agents and a limited liability company. But the real estate equivalent of a bread crumb trail suggests that the purchaser of the opulent estate is onetime junk bond king Michael Milken, who has spent more than two decades devoted to philanthropic efforts since he pleaded guilty in 1990 to securities fraud.

Gisele Bundchen , supermodel and actress, and her husband, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady , have put their mega-estate in Brentwood on the market at $50 million. The country French chateau is reached by a winding driveway that ends at a cobblestone motor court. Adding to the Old World ambience created by architect Richard Landry is a moat-like koi pond that meanders alongside the mansion. The limestone-clad house incorporates reclaimed ceiling beams, salvaged tile, antique doors and marble fireplace surrounds.

March 19, 2014 | By Richard Winton and Samantha Schaefer, This post has been corrected. See the note below for details.

Fourteen teens accused of throwing a clandestine party at an unoccupied La Habra Heights mansion -- and then looting it of everything from collectible medieval armor to a mounted snow leopard -- are due in court Wedesday to face trespassing and burglary charges. The 9,000-square-foot home sustained more than than $1 million in losses and damage in the November incident, authorities said. Among the looted items were collectible medieval armor, scuba gear, designer suits and the snow leopard, valued at $250,000.

The historic home in Coronado, Calif., at the center of a high-profile death case is being sold to real estate investors who plan to refurbish the 27-room, 12,750-square-foot mansion for resale, according to a source close to the previous owner. The sale price was not disclosed, but the home had been listed at $14.5 million. The Ocean Boulevard house, built for philanthropist and sugar baron John D. Spreckels in the early 1900s, was purchased two years ago by pharmaceutical executive Jonah Shacknai as a summer home.

Wolfgang Puck has purchased a mansion in the Holmby Hills area of Beverly Crest for $14 million. The seller was Hyatt Hotel heir Anthony Pritzker. Set at the end of a gated drive on 1.25 acres, the 1938 villa is entered through a two-story foyer. Features include 15-foot living room ceilings, a two-story library, a limestone galleria, a media room, a game room with a bar, a wine cellar, eight bedrooms and 11 bathrooms in 12,289 square feet of living space. The updated kitchen has plenty of freezer space for Puck's signature gourmet pizzas.

Gisele Bundchen, supermodel and sometimes actress, and her husband, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, have put their mega-estate in Brentwood on the market at $50 million. The country French chateau is reached by a winding driveway that ends at a cobblestone motor court. Adding to the old world ambience created by architect Richard Landry is a moat-like water feature that meanders alongside the mansion. The four acres of grounds contain waterfalls, ponds, an infinity pool, lawns, gardens and pathways.

March 18, 2014 | By Richard Winton, This post has been corrected. See the note below for details.

More than a dozen teens have been charged in connection with a break-in at a La Habra Heights mansion, where they allegedly threw a party while the owners were away and stole, among other items, a mounted snow leopard. The 9,000-square-foot home sustained more than than $1 million in losses and damages in the November incident, authorities said. Among the looted items were pieces of armor, racks of designer clothing and the rare, $250,000 snow leopard. Detectives with the Los Angeles County's Sheriff's Department eventually found the leopard in one of the teens' possession.